Hey guys, just had a few questions about my new Cowon J3. I got the 32gb version a couple weeks ago, and I've only been focusing on getting my music on there so far. Are there any settings I should change that is recommended for everyone? Also, is there a latest firmware update I should get? And one last question about m4a/AAC files. I've noticed you can get album art by adding a cover.jpg file, but is there anyway you can get the rest of the info to show, and the tracklisting to go in album order instead of alphabetical order? It bugs me when its not haha.

I can't really help with much besides the last question. To help, I need a little info:

If you're browsing using the tags, it should go in track order depending upon what the files are tagged with as the order.

If you're browsing using the folder browser functionality, then it will go based upon file name, alphabetically. If this is the case and you want it to go in track number order, rename the files with 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, etc. at the beginning of them.

My guess as to what most people are going to say for the first question is play around with it. Everyone likes different things, has different headphones... Experiment! That's part of the fun of having such a versatile device as a Cowon.

For firmware, you'll probably have to let people know what version you have.

You should upgrade your firmware from the 2.23 you say you have to at least 2.26, which works reliably according to all accounts (including mine, as 2.26 is the firmware version I'm using).

Latest firmware is actually 2.28 but some users have reported a slight sluggishness in response, at least with some 3rd-party UCI replacements and have gone back to 2.26 to resolve the problem. Certainly there is no functional reason to go to 2.28 for me, based on the list of "fixes" Cowon published.

Although "supported", WMA files also have known J3 issues in terms of handling tags (and specifically the "track number" tag field value in WMA tags). This has been reported to Cowon but no fix has been delivered (and it seems unlikely to ever come, since the J3 has now been officially discontinued by Cowon).

Best bet: MP3 and FLAC music formats, with their corresponding ID3 and FLAC (Ogg) tags if you can do that.

Quote:

I've noticed you can get album art by adding a cover.jpg file

Yes. Placing a "cover.jpg" album art image into a physical "album folder" will cause that JPG to be used for display, for any physical music file in that physical folder that does not have its own imbedded album art JPG in its tag.

Quote:

but is there anyway you can get the rest of the info to show

The J3 firmware displays neither (a) year nor (b) genre tag field values. It only displays (a) artist, (b) album, and (c) song title tag field values.

But you can play music (i.e. "browse" and select music for play) through all five of these tag field values, which are all analyzed by the J3 at boot time and serve as the five major "sort keys" into the tags database re-constructed at each cold boot.

Quote:

...and the tracklisting to go in album order instead of alphabetical order?

If you browse "physically" (i.e. exactly like when using Windows Explorer with the J3 connected to the PC), starting from the "browser" button on the main menu and coming down through Library -> [Folders], and then either [J3] or [J3 Ext], and then down through the folder structure on either internal or external storage, etc., (in other words, exactly as if you were navigating downward using Windows Explorer on the PC), then every list you see will be in alphabetical sequence. You're actually looking at things "physically" (just like with Windows Explorer), and the lists are external folder/file names. This has nothing to do with the internal tags and field values. It is entirely "physical", and you are looking strictly at external folder and file names, and each list at any level is strictly alphabetical.

In contrast, if you browse through the tags database, coming down through any of the five major sort keys (i.e. using the five major tag field values), e.g. Library -> [Artists] or Library -> [Albums], when you further navigate downward into what appears to be an "album folder", you're not actually in a "physical" album folder at all. Rather, you are simply looking a the "logical" album, meaning all music files which have the same "album" value in their tags, no matter what "physical" folder that music file might actually be stored in (according to Windows Explorer).

In this situation, when you're looking at a "logical album", the tracks will be presented to you exactly as they were on the original CD, if you have proper "track number" values in the tag fields of those music files. This is the only situation in which the tracks are presented in "track number" sequence... namely when you are viewing a "logical album", entered from either (a) Library -> [Artists] and then selecting a specific album by that artist, or (b) Library -> [Albums].

All other "logical" lists (i.e. browse of the tags database), including Library -> [Artists] -> [All Tracks], will be in alphabetical order showing the internal "artist", "album" and "song title" tag field values (i.e. you are not looking at the external folder/file names, but rather are looking at the internal tag field values).

Your best bet to avoid confusion is to have your external folder/file names match your internal tag field values. And that would also imply having your music collection organized like \Music\Artist\Album.

But you can obviously do anything you want since it's your own music collection. This would include optionally adding a track number "prefix" to your external file names if that gives you the "physical" track number sequence you're looking for when browsing by [Folders] which would otherwise produce a purely alphabetical display based on these external file names.

Just keep in mind that [Folders] browsing is "physical", and the presentation is always going to be alphabetical by external folder/file name... however you've externally named things.

And [Artists], [Albums], [Songs], [Genres], and [Years] browsing is "logical", and based on internal tag field values. This will also be alphabetical (based on internal tag field values) except for when you are looking at a "logical album" in which case the tracks are presented in "track number" (tag field) sequence, having nothing to do with any external file name or track number prefix you might have added to the external file name.